DETROIT, July 25 (UPI) -- A girl found dead in a burned-out, abandoned house in Detroit died before the fire started, authorities said Monday, but a missing girl's family held out hope.
Fire investigators say the body resembled Mariha Smith, 5, but Dennis Niemiec of the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office told the Detroit Free Press it was too soon to say.
"The ID is going to be through DNA, so we don't have an ID yet," he said.
The girl's "skull was crushed and she was burned, but the cause of death was asphyxiation. Whatever killed her occurred before the fire," Niemiec said.
The body was found at 7:55 a.m. Sunday in a burning, abandoned home.
"Everything looks like that child, but the child was terribly burned," said Fire Lt. Patrick McNulty. "She'd be unrecognizable except for the basic structure, the approximate size, approximate weight and the fact that she's a female."
Konesha Smith, 24, said her daughter was kidnapped between 3 a.m. and noon Sunday as she slept on the floor at her aunt's home. Police issued an Amber Alert Sunday night.
"I suspect my niece is still alive," the aunt, Dominique Poole, told The Detroit News. "And I just pray whoever's got her just brings her back home."
The Southeast Michigan Crimes Against Children Task Force has a "person of interest" in custody, FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold told the News. Mariha's relatives said they did not recognize the person in a photo police showed them.
